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Defying The Odds: Penn State Freshmen Find Love On Yik Yak

As most of us may know, Yik Yak is a social media app where people have the freedom to post and view discussion threads of whatever they please, within a five-mile radius. The app, which regained popularity this year following its infamous past, mainly centers around college students and is completely anonymous.

Yik Yak is especially popular on college campuses and allows students to interact and engage with random people. The app consists of posts about jokes, current trends, campus life, and news — plus, sometimes news that is drastically fabricated and exaggerated.

Earlier this semester, two freshmen here at Penn State met on the app and are now in a serious relationship. Given the platform’s anonymous shtick with no direct message features in sight, this could be a first for Yik Yak.

We sat down with the pair to get to know them better and to hear all about their Yik Yak love story. The pair wishes to remain anonymous, so we’ll call them by their Yik Yak emoji icons: Chicken and Beer Mug.

Right away, we immediately asked them what their profile pictures on the app are. Chicken explained that he always changes it for fun, but at the time, it was indeed a chicken with a blue background. His girlfriend then shared that her profile picture still remains the same: a beer mug.

Chicken says that since he uses the app quite frequently, his Yakarma — a similar feature to Reddit upvotes or Twitter likes — sits at around 7,500. Very impressive, Chicken.

While sharing the beginning of their love story, Beer Mug said that it was her own post that got a decent amount of upvotes. Little did she know that this post would spark a college romance for the ages.

Screenshot provided by Beer Mug

“Everyone in the comments was like ‘Oh my god, yeah. I had a high school relationship, and we broke up and everyone here is on Tinder and hooking up,'” Beer Mug said. “It was just relatable, I guess. I didn’t think it would be like that.”

Beer Mug also explained that the Yik Yak community offered her advice in the comments. Some people told her to try to take things slow or maybe even try out “friends with benefits”. Chicken, of course then shared his comment, which was half satirical.

“I’ll be your friend with benefits,” Chicken slyly commented.

From there, Chicken commented with his burner Snapchat account that he specifically uses for Yik Yak. Good call, Chicken.

“My first impression was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be a joke, right?'” Beer Mug said. “I was not very into it.”

Chicken, of course, didn’t know how far this fruitful effort would go, either. Still, he figured it was worth a shot.

“I was not very slick or direct. I wasn’t expecting it to get very far, either,” he said. “I was like, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ When I asked if she wanted to meet up and she said yes, I thought, ‘No way! Really?”‘

Beer Mug had some doubts and worries since she didn’t want Chicken to turn out to be a creep, so the pair agreed to meet up in a public place: the Berkey Creamery, the site of countless first dates on Penn State’s campus.

A week after their first date, Chicken popped the question to Beer Mug: “Wanna just try this as a relationship?” Even to this day, Beer Mug says that she and Chicken still joke about how they met.

“The whole point of Yik Yak wasn’t to find a relationship. I had no clue what I was doing,” Beer Mug said.

After the couple became official, Beer Mug admitted to checking Chicken’s Yik Yak karma quite often, similar to how couples check each other’s Snap Scores on Snapchat.

For now, the couple hasn’t told their families how they met. As far as their parents know, they met through Penn State’s Outing Club — a student-run group that they both do spend time with.

While Chicken and Beer Mug’s Yik Yak love story is pretty cute, it’s also rather unlikely. Chicken advises fellow students to keep things in perspective while anonymously browsing social media, while Beer Mug was a little blunter.

“Don’t go on Yik Yak and be thirsty,” she said.

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About the Author

Evan Halfen

Evan Halfen is a junior broadcast journalism major from Newark, DE, and is one of Onward State's associate editors. Evan loves all things Penn State, tailgating, being loud, just about any beach, and his puppies, Butterscotch and Wentzy. You can direct all your tips, roasts, and jokes to his Instagram: @evan.halfen or email: [email protected]

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